Tata Zest spotted on Test near Pune, India

Snapshot: Tata Motors has been testing Zest in India, expected to be launched by mid 2014

Apparently, Tata Motors is leaving no stone unturned in getting its new compact sedan, Zest, just right for the Indian market. While the company launched the web site a couple of days back, now a test mule has been spotted running on the roads. The test mule was well camouflaged but thanks to the wide publicity the car got at the recently concluded Auto Expo, it was soon identified.

The Zest is based on the existing Manza platform but its total length is 3995mm, to avail the excise benefits of the sub-4 metre category. The car is round and organic in shape, like many new car models and apparently has been built with collective inputs from Tata's Pune, Coventry and Turin based design centers – overall the effort seems to have paid off, and the Zest looks quite interesting.

The Zest will be introduced in both petrol and diesel options. The diesel powertrain continues to be the 1.3-litre QuadraJet diesel engine that does duty under the hood of Manza and Vista Tech with power figures of 90 PS at 4000 RPM and 200 Nm of torque between 1750-3000 RPM. The petrol powered model will have a 85 PS at 5000 RPM and 140 Nm between 1750-3000 RPM, generated by the company's newly-derived 1.2-litre Revotron turbocharged unit.

Tata has not announced the launch schedule for Zest until now but considering the Zest's website development and this test run, we can expect it to enter the Indian market around mid 2014.